Sanhuang Paochui (Three Emperors Cannon Fist)
三皇炮捶North Chinese style from Jizhou, Hebei, on the provincial intangible heritage list (2012). Lineage from three emperors and Shaolin monks is tradition, Song Mailun of late Qing is documented.
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About Sanhuang Paochui (Three Emperors Cannon Fist)
Sanhuang paochui, the cannon fist of the three emperors, is a northern Chinese style whose name refers to a legend of three mythical emperors, Fu Xi, Shennong and Gonggong. Local tradition says it arose from the union of heaven, earth and the three emperors. The tradition cited by English Wikipedia also tells of the Shaolin monk Tanzong, who demonstrated paochui at the celebration of Emperor Gaozu, and of a lineage from the monk Puzhao of Mount Emei through Qiao Sanxiu and Gan Fengchi (under Kangxi and Yongzheng) and Qiao Heling (under Qianlong) to Yu Liandeng and Song Mailun, who divided the style into the Song and Yu branches. For this lineage we have found no source other than Wikipedia. The years 1736 to 1795 are the reign years of Qianlong, not the life dates of Qiao Heling.
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The documented history is more recent. Beijing Daily (2017) links the origin of the style to Song Mailun of the late Qing dynasty, nicknamed Divine Fist, a native of the village of Zhaojiazhuang in Jizhou in the prefecture of Hengshui in Hebei Province, who founded the Huiyou escort agency, the largest in the capital according to the article. A symposium of Beijing practitioners on 29 and 30 October 1983 determined Zhaojiazhuang to be the cradle of the style. In 2012 Sanhuang paochui was inscribed in the fourth batch of the Hebei provincial list of intangible cultural heritage, in the category of acrobatics and competitive sports, as an item of Jizhou District. We did not find it on China's national list of intangible heritage. The sources give neither the founder nor the year of origin. According to Beijing Daily, the system in Jizhou is divided into twelve fixed forms, and weapons include the dagger, short and long sword, paired swords, Chunqiu halberd, short staff and Zilong spear. English Wikipedia gives as the style's basis a form built on cross strikes with a horse stance and explosive power, fajin, without a source. Transmission is mostly from teacher to student, and according to a 2017 article nearly two hundred people practise the style in Jizhou, mostly young.
History
By tradition it is the art of the three mythical emperors Fu Xi, Shennong and Gonggong, and according to local legend it arose from the union of heaven, earth and the three emperors. English Wikipedia adds, citing Canzonieri (1998), that the monk Tanzong demonstrated paochui at the celebration of Emperor Gaozu and that the first Shaolin monks learned it from practitioners from Mount Emei, and a lineage from the monk Puzhao, who learned on Emei from a Taoist priest, via his students Qiao Sanxiu and Gan Fengchi under Kangxi and Yongzheng and Qiao Heling under Qianlong to Song Mailun and Yu Liandeng, who divided the style into Song and Yu branches. For this lineage we have found no source other than Wikipedia, so it is tradition.
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Beijing Daily (2017) links the origin of the style to Song Mailun of the late Qing dynasty, nicknamed Divine Fist Song, a native of the village of Zhaojiazhuang in Beizhanghuai municipality in Jizhou District (Hengshui prefecture, Hebei Province), who founded the Huiyou escort agency, the largest in the capital according to the article. Song Mailun's dating therefore differs between sources, with Wikipedia placing him among Qiao Heling's students from the Qianlong period. A symposium of Beijing practitioners on 29 and 30 October 1983 named Zhaojiazhuang the cradle of the style. In 2012 Sanhuang paochui was inscribed in the fourth batch of the Hebei provincial list of intangible cultural heritage, in the category of acrobatics and competitive sports, as an item of Jizhou District. We did not find an item of that name on China's national intangible heritage list. The sources give neither the founder nor the year of origin.
Training
According to Beijing Daily (2017), the whole system in Jizhou is divided into twelve fixed forms. Weapons taught include the dagger, short sword, long sword, paired swords, Chunqiu halberd, short staff and Zilong spear. Transmission is mostly from teacher to student, and the fifth generation, Zhao Gengfang and Zhao Dongliang, studied under the fourth generation, Zhao Hengtong, who was 62 in 2017 and lives in Xinjiang. According to the article, nearly two hundred people in Jizhou practise the style, mostly young people. English Wikipedia gives as the basis of the style a form built on shizichui cross strikes with a horse stance and explosive power, fajin, without a source. We have no more detailed description of the technique from a federation-level source or an intangible heritage list.
Today
Today the style is carried by the lineage in Jizhou in Hebei, where an exhibition hall of Sanhuang paochui with 130 photographs, 70 objects and twenty thousand characters of text opened in January 2016. English Wikipedia reports its spread in Beijing, Hebei, Shanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Henan and Jilin, without a source, and we have been able to confirm only Jizhou. Sanhuang paochui is not a separate discipline of competitive wushu, it does not appear in the 2019 IWUF rules for traditional wushu, and the regulations of the 8th World Kung Fu Championships 2019 list only general paochui among the traditional styles in the shared category of other styles. We have found no federation or association that would oversee the style, nor any grades or titles specific to the style.
Did you know
Beijing Daily says that Li Yaochen, a later holder of the style, created the sword-fighting technique wuji dao, which according to the article soldiers used in the battle of Xifengkou against Japanese troops, the article gives no year. The Chunqiu halberd shown by Zhao Dongliang weighs twenty kilograms per the same article, and the Zilong spear of Zhao Gengfang is four metres long.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sanhuang paochui on an intangible heritage list?
We did not find it on China's national list. It is inscribed on the provincial list of Hebei Province in the fourth batch of 2012 as an item of Jizhou District in Hengshui.
How many forms does Sanhuang paochui have?
According to Beijing Daily, the system of the Jizhou lineage is divided into twelve fixed forms, and its weapons include the Chunqiu halberd and the Zilong spear.
Where is the cradle of Sanhuang paochui?
A symposium of Beijing practitioners in October 1983 named the village of Zhaojiazhuang in Jizhou District, Hengshui prefecture, Hebei, birthplace of Song Mailun, the cradle of the style.
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